1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a snow grooming device adapted to be attached to a vehicle with the aid of a coupling means, comprising a carrier frame, which consists of at least one transverse supporting member and two longitudinal supporting members and on which a vertically adjustable snow propeller and a smoothing board are mounted, said carrier frame being mounted on said coupling means such that it is adapted to be pivoted about an essentially horizontal longitudinal shaft and an essentially horizontal transverse shaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such a snow grooming device is known from DE-A-29 46 796. In this reference, the snow grooming device is coupled to the tail of a vehicle via a drag bar. At the rear end of the drag bar, a carrier frame is supported by means of two longitudinal supporting member ends such that it is adapted to be pivoted about a horizontal transverse shaft and a horizontal longitudinal shaft. When seen in a side view, the carrier frame has an essentially V-shaped structural design, a smoothing board and, adjacent thereto, a snow propeller being pivotably supported at the rear end of said carrier frame. With the aid of two adjusting means, the snow propeller is vertically adjustable and an angle of inclination of the smoothing board can be varied, said two adjusting means being provided between the carrier frame and the snow propeller and the carrier frame and the smoothing board, respectively. The smoothing board is followed by a finisher.
The snow grooming device known from DE-A-29 46 796 is disadvantageous insofar as its overall length, which is necessary for pivotably raising the snow grooming device to a ready position, is comparatively large. This restricts the manoeuverability of the vehicle; in particular, cornering is only possible with a comparatively large radius. Hence, it will be difficult to groom the snow on pistes by directly adjoining passages of the snow grooming device. Due to the fact that the snow propeller is arranged such that it is "pushed", steering of the snow grooming device is additionally made more difficult in a disadvantageous manner, since the tracking properties of the snow grooming device are disadvantageous due to the pushed mode of arrangement. Another drawback is that the carrier frame is arranged such that it defines a U which is open in the direction of the vehicle, whereby the rigidity of the carrier frame is influenced unfavourably.